Thursday, April 23, 2009

in which statistics bite me in the ass. again.

Let's review some statistics, shall we?

According to the CDC's website, up to 10% of the general population has fertility problems.

So, let's take 10 million people.

1 million of them have some kind of fertility problem.

Generally speaking, 40% of fertility problems are male; 40% are female; the other 20% are either unknown, or both partners.  Let's split the number and say that 10% are both partners.

Now we're down to 100,000 people.

The CDC estimates that about 85% of fertility problems can be solved without extreme medical intervention (read: IVF).  So, up to 15% of those 100,000 people will try IVF.

15,000 people.

Let's say they all go to my clinic and they're all in my age range.  In which case, they have a 50-60% chance of success.  We'll split the difference: 55%.

2250 people.

Of IVF patients, approximately 1-2% will end up with an ectopic pregnancy.  Again, we'll split the difference: 1.5%.

That's 34 people.

So, today's three-part lesson is as follows:

Part one: I have an ectopic pregnancy.  Damn it.

Part two: I am one of maybe 34 out of TEN FREAKING MILLION PEOPLE to whom this will happen.  DAMN IT.  (That is a .0000034% chance, in case you were wondering.)

Part three:  I should seriously consider buying a lottery ticket.

11 comments:

  1. SHIT! I am SO sorry! DAMN IT! This is just not right.

    Yes, buy a lottery ticket and win big. Show statistics who's boss.

    I hope this can be relieved relatively painlessly (physically) and without permanent damage to your body.

    still praying.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh no. Damn, damn, damn. I'm sorry you're having to go through this (I know I keep saying this, I just don't know what else to say). Thinking of you so much!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Coming over from LFCA. I'm so sorry you are going through this. Ectopics suck and I wouldn't wish them on anyone. Sending you big hugs

    ReplyDelete
  4. Also coming over from LCFA. I am so sorry. This completely sucks.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Here from LCFA. I just found out last week my IVF cycle resulted in an ectopic. Fun stuff. Doesn't the statistics just sound GREAT? Sonofa.

    So sorry you are going through this too. It SUCKS.

    ReplyDelete
  6. As Katie put it so well, ectopics truly do suck, big time. I'm so sorry you have to go through this.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Dammit - I'm so sorry. You'll be in my thoughts.

    Mr. Shelby

    ReplyDelete
  8. they say knowledge is power - but damn, your stats just make me more angry for you, not empowered. I'm so sorry this is happening.

    ReplyDelete
  9. :-( Oh I'm so sorry. SUCK! Gah...how many wrong sides of the stats can a person fall on???

    ReplyDelete
  10. I am so sorry. I understand being on the wrong side of statistics. I was 11 weeks pregnant and a heart beat was detected and I was told as I miscarried "oh it cant be a miscarriage the odds are only 2%" Yeah, fuck the statistics.

    I am so sorry to hear this though, you're in my thoughts.

    ReplyDelete